The present invention relates to garments for protecting the head, neck, shoulder and chest areas of a person from cold drafts of air. More particularly, the invention relates to a garment especially suitable for wearing beneath an outer garment, such as a sweater or a topcoat.
A person wearing a topcoat, for example, during cold and blustery weather often requires further insulating garments to keep his or her face warm. Many topcoats also fail to shield the shoulders and chest of a wearer from chilling drafts due to leakages of air at the neck opening and frontal seam of the coat. Several configurations of scarves, dickeys and mufflers for wearing with an outer garment to enhance the over-all warmth of a person have been disclosed in the prior art, as shown, for example, at U.S. Pat. Nos. 593,954, 746,586, 837,143, 866,752, 905,270, 1,016,214, 2,269,491, 2,346,918, 3,449,766 and 3,479,667.
Each of these prior art garments is designed to protect the neck or chest regions of a wearer, or both. What is needed, however, is a garment which protects not only the neck and chest of a wearer, but which also effectively insulates the shoulders of a person and which, if desired, can also be worn with a portion of the garment covering the ear, mouth and nose of the wearer.
An improved garment of the type described should be relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture. In addition, to prevent any particular hairstyle or makeup arrangement from being interfered with the garment should not require a person to pull the garment over his or her head when putting the garment on or taking it off.